@awk Similar but possibly crummier ones (without the flashlight in the lid) can be had at Harbor Freight for under six bucks. Given what a shitshow their batteries are, I think I’d grab these instead, and use the flashlights as gifts.
@Mandamm I live where hurricanes can happen. I have two generators; a 5kW and an 8kW. What I really want is one of the Diesel autostart/autoswitch standby units, but that won’t be in the budget for a very long time, if ever.
@werehatrack I live in South Texas. So, Hurricanes can surely happen. Weather has been so crazy. I have 1 decent generator that I bought after Harvey and am happy to say I have never used it. I did, however finally put the wheels on it… The Generac is awesome because it is hooked up to his Natural Gas line. No external fuel required, so much safer and easier, but I am sure a lot pricier. I still want one though. GL to all of us in this Crazy Weather. Fires all around, other places under water…
@Mandamm The Generacs that run on natural gas also have a longer continuous service interval before they need engine attention, because the rings, cylinder walls and valves all tend to last longer when using that fuel, so they burn less oil, and tend to contaminate it less as well. They’re vulnerable to loss of fuel feed if the NG pipelines are damaged, but that’s rare. (One got severed by flood debris washing under a bridge near me during Harvey, though. Fortunately, it didn’t feed my neighborhood.)
@mike808 I suspect that the flashlight probably takes AAA, but if they really use AA, then they’re going to have an amazingly long runtime with just the drain from a 60 lumen LED. I have some of these lanterns, and the smaller one is plenty bright. I haven’t run one flat yet, but I haven’t needed them much either.
@hchavers Oh, K-ma-part! Fondly I remember those yellowed tiled floors, that drip stained drop ceiling that was just hung too low for contemporary tastes.
The Icee machine that used to be in the back but got moved to the front and then went away forever. But dammit, they had that blue flavor way before it got played out by those Bubble-Pop creeps. I think the kid running the Icee machine also served big soft pretzels with cheese. My brother always wanted one of those. Nonna always indulged my brother on those trips…
@bmtka@hchavers@mike808 Just saw on the news tonight that there are only 3 left in the US. To be honest, I was surprised to see that because I thought they were all gone a while ago. I don’t think they did the blue light special in more recent years, right? But I totally remember them as a kid, lol!
@hchavers@k4evryng@mike808 It was never wholesome or anything, but there was something innocent about that Kmart-style consumerism. Innocent compared to youknowWhat-Mart, at least.
@bmtka@hchavers@k4evryng@mike808
KMart Blue light special was the source for my very first digital camera. If I remember right it was from Fuji, and shot pics onto a floppy disk…
@bmtka@chienfou@hchavers@k4evryng@mike808 Mavica MVC-FD5 or FD7; both used the 3.5" floppy, but the 7 had a 10X zoom lens - and they took ten seconds to write the image to the disk.
Just saw on the news tonight that there are only 3 [Kmart stores] left in the US.
According to their website, KMart still has three in the Florida Keys, one in deep south Miami, one in Michigan, and one in California, at the very least. But there might only be three of the old-school huge stores; I can’t see anybody putting a monster on Key Largo. Then again, KMart was the absolute poster child company for upper management dumbassery, and still is. And they’ve dragged Sears down the hole with them.
@werehatrack I assumed they meant the stand alone stores? It was on World News Tonight as their last little story blurb. The two near me closed about 2 years ago. It was definitely sad to see it continue to decline over the years. And then there was the whole Martha Stewart debacle, wasn’t there? Did she sell it to Sears, or did she buy it from them? I can’t remember, lol! But I know that it was a slow death for Kmart.
According to their website, KMart still has three in the Florida Keys, one in deep south Miami, one in Michigan, and one in California, at the very least.
@werehatrack
Like everything else, it’s outdated. The only three remaining in the mainland are:
Miami, FL
Westwood, NJ
Bridgehampton, NY
The rest are located in US territories: one in Puerto Rico, four in the US Virgin Islands, and their most profitable store, Guam.
And they’ve dragged Sears down the hole with them.
I’d argue that Sears killed itself. As a founder of Prodigy internet services – who’d want to shop online?! Mail order distribution centers located in strategic metropolitan areas for quicker fulfillment? That’s too effective! They had the brand that sold almost anything and everything, along with the customers that went to them because they offered convenience. In short, they were Amazon before Amazon existed.
@megalomani There are a TON of similar lights on Amazon that accept 18650 batteries and run a LONG time. I have a pair of lanterns similar to these that run on a pair of 18650s and seemingly run forever.
@megalomani - don’t worry, you’ll put batteries in these, forget about 'em for about a year or so, and by then the batteries will have leaked and destroyed all of the elctronics.
Unless you use expensive lithiums or rechargeables, of course.
@megalomani@mrdancer The electronics appear to be fairly well isolated from the battery cavity, but the usual trap of thinly plated steel contacts and springs plus extra-thin wiring susceptible to being eaten by the leaky crud will be enough to do them in. A few at a time, I’ve been reducing the number of things powered by alkalines around here, via a number of things. Half as many 14500 batteries, plus an equal number of dummy pass-through connectors, is one way to go rechargeable where an even number of AA batteries were used. Too many of them use three cells, though. Like these. But I’ll bet that the light would work acceptably with three 14500 cells in parallel, and that might be a feasible mod…
It’s tornado season, so the magnets will be perfect for attaching the lanterns to the inside of our storm shelter walls and ceiling. Should make them super easy to bang our heads into when trying to wrestle three big dogs down into a metal coffin.
@chienfou@jedijson They didn’t include enough sharp edges or incredibly fragile and brittle plastics to make them really deadly, though. The manufacturers will have to sharpen their game if they expect to get any recognition in this area.
Oh, darn. Yesterday, I bought a set for $15 on Morningsave, which had 4 color selections . I’m “feelin’ it” Considering buying some for gifts. Storm season is coming.
Junk, had the same set, used twice camping and tossed. Batteries exhausted after first 30min use as the lanterns stay on sometimes when they should go off. Second time using them one did not work at all and the second would not turn off again…junk junk
@Dubhlaine
Were they this brand for sure? I have seen these marketed in multiple places under multiple brands with slight variances. The ones I own actually work very well. As for being rechargeable, I put rechargeable batteries in mine.
Here is a link to an old meh sale
Another testament to the willingness of certain Asian manufacturers to not just rip off an idea, but outright copy an entire design right down to reproducing the flaws in the one copied. Most of these would benefit from having the switch positioned where the lantern had to be opened just a bit more before it turned on, but they always copy that problematic feature, and sometimes they don’t get it right.
FWIW, if these are the same as the ones I got in an IRK late last year, the switches were accurately placed on those, but with near zero tolerance for eventual wear. Two of them are stuck to the metal case next to me at the moment, and the batteries are still lively. Those came in unbranded boxes, and weren’t this color, but otherwise look completely identical right down to the size and positioning of the magnets and markings on the bottom.
All of them need a latch or lock to keep the lantern closed in travel, unless you’re going to try to keep them in the flimsy boxes that they were shipped in.
@TheMonkeyKing@werehatrack In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!
/giphy green-lantern
Given the crummy batteries included in some of the market-priced (cheap) rechargeable devices I’ve had, I’m good with something having an open battery compartment that I can populate to suit myself. For that matter, ditto for a lot of recent laptops whose battery is buried inside the case, and fails in a way that can destroy the whole thing by expanding to two or three times its normal thickness. I could care less how waffer-theen it is, I want the damn thing to last longer than the original battery, and not pull a Mr. Creosote on me when it hits the ditch-by date.
Needs a solar panel. Done filling these with batteries. The solar one is great for camping. Set it outside the tent during the day, and ready to go for night.
Specs
Product: 2-Pack: SecureBrite 3-Piece Ultimate Flashlight and Lantern Bundle
Model: BL0272LMFBL
Condition: New
Large Lantern
Medium Lantern
Mini focus adjustable flashlight
What’s Included?
Price Comparison
$46.32 for 2 sets on QVC
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Thursday, Aug 4 - Monday, Aug 8
Two-fer-Tuesday is back?
But I just want the lanterns.
@awk Similar but possibly crummier ones (without the flashlight in the lid) can be had at Harbor Freight for under six bucks. Given what a shitshow their batteries are, I think I’d grab these instead, and use the flashlights as gifts.
With all our wind driven power outages, you can never have enough Flashlights.
Used some tonight. Need a Generac. Like my Neighbor, Generator Envy.
@Mandamm
@Mandamm I live where hurricanes can happen. I have two generators; a 5kW and an 8kW. What I really want is one of the Diesel autostart/autoswitch standby units, but that won’t be in the budget for a very long time, if ever.
@werehatrack I live in South Texas. So, Hurricanes can surely happen. Weather has been so crazy. I have 1 decent generator that I bought after Harvey and am happy to say I have never used it. I did, however finally put the wheels on it…
The Generac is awesome because it is hooked up to his Natural Gas line. No external fuel required, so much safer and easier, but I am sure a lot pricier. I still want one though. GL to all of us in this Crazy Weather. Fires all around, other places under water…
MEALS! DEALS! EELS! AWESOME!
@Mandamm The Generacs that run on natural gas also have a longer continuous service interval before they need engine attention, because the rings, cylinder walls and valves all tend to last longer when using that fuel, so they burn less oil, and tend to contaminate it less as well. They’re vulnerable to loss of fuel feed if the NG pipelines are damaged, but that’s rare. (One got severed by flood debris washing under a bridge near me during Harvey, though. Fortunately, it didn’t feed my neighborhood.)
Future so bright I make my own shade
At least they appear to be honest about the light output. On eBay, that 50-lumen light would be 3000 lumens.
So the medium lantern takes 3 Triple-A batteries and the flashlight takes 3 double-A batteries, but the triple-As put out four times the light?
I don’t think the energy required adds up to the capacity. Unless the bigger lantern only lasts for 30 seconds before killing the puny triple-As.
@mike808 I suspect that the flashlight probably takes AAA, but if they really use AA, then they’re going to have an amazingly long runtime with just the drain from a 60 lumen LED. I have some of these lanterns, and the smaller one is plenty bright. I haven’t run one flat yet, but I haven’t needed them much either.
Look ma no hands! Lanterns.
Go to the light get the light now open the frig and those batteries up.
The Blue Light Special is back! For you kids, that was a sales gimmick at Kmar…, oh, go look it up.
@hchavers Oh, K-ma-part! Fondly I remember those yellowed tiled floors, that drip stained drop ceiling that was just hung too low for contemporary tastes.
The Icee machine that used to be in the back but got moved to the front and then went away forever. But dammit, they had that blue flavor way before it got played out by those Bubble-Pop creeps. I think the kid running the Icee machine also served big soft pretzels with cheese. My brother always wanted one of those. Nonna always indulged my brother on those trips…
@bmtka @hchavers
@bmtka @hchavers @mike808 Just saw on the news tonight that there are only 3 left in the US. To be honest, I was surprised to see that because I thought they were all gone a while ago. I don’t think they did the blue light special in more recent years, right? But I totally remember them as a kid, lol!
@hchavers @k4evryng @mike808 It was never wholesome or anything, but there was something innocent about that Kmart-style consumerism. Innocent compared to youknowWhat-Mart, at least.
I miss my Nonna.
@bmtka @hchavers @k4evryng @mike808
KMart Blue light special was the source for my very first digital camera. If I remember right it was from Fuji, and shot pics onto a floppy disk…
@bmtka @chienfou @hchavers @k4evryng @mike808 Mavica MVC-FD5 or FD7; both used the 3.5" floppy, but the 7 had a 10X zoom lens - and they took ten seconds to write the image to the disk.
@bmtka @hchavers @k4evryng @mike808
According to their website, KMart still has three in the Florida Keys, one in deep south Miami, one in Michigan, and one in California, at the very least. But there might only be three of the old-school huge stores; I can’t see anybody putting a monster on Key Largo. Then again, KMart was the absolute poster child company for upper management dumbassery, and still is. And they’ve dragged Sears down the hole with them.
@werehatrack I assumed they meant the stand alone stores? It was on World News Tonight as their last little story blurb. The two near me closed about 2 years ago. It was definitely sad to see it continue to decline over the years. And then there was the whole Martha Stewart debacle, wasn’t there? Did she sell it to Sears, or did she buy it from them? I can’t remember, lol! But I know that it was a slow death for Kmart.
@werehatrack
Like everything else, it’s outdated. The only three remaining in the mainland are:
Miami, FL
Westwood, NJ
Bridgehampton, NY
The rest are located in US territories: one in Puerto Rico, four in the US Virgin Islands, and their most profitable store, Guam.
I’d argue that Sears killed itself. As a founder of Prodigy internet services – who’d want to shop online?! Mail order distribution centers located in strategic metropolitan areas for quicker fulfillment? That’s too effective! They had the brand that sold almost anything and everything, along with the customers that went to them because they offered convenience. In short, they were Amazon before Amazon existed.
A recent Retail Archeology video:
Did you pick these up at your local gas station and mark em up 200%
If rechargeable would be in, don’t want to replace batteries in perpetuum.
@megalomani There are a TON of similar lights on Amazon that accept 18650 batteries and run a LONG time. I have a pair of lanterns similar to these that run on a pair of 18650s and seemingly run forever.
@megalomani - don’t worry, you’ll put batteries in these, forget about 'em for about a year or so, and by then the batteries will have leaked and destroyed all of the elctronics.
Unless you use expensive lithiums or rechargeables, of course.
@megalomani @mrdancer The electronics appear to be fairly well isolated from the battery cavity, but the usual trap of thinly plated steel contacts and springs plus extra-thin wiring susceptible to being eaten by the leaky crud will be enough to do them in. A few at a time, I’ve been reducing the number of things powered by alkalines around here, via a number of things. Half as many 14500 batteries, plus an equal number of dummy pass-through connectors, is one way to go rechargeable where an even number of AA batteries were used. Too many of them use three cells, though. Like these. But I’ll bet that the light would work acceptably with three 14500 cells in parallel, and that might be a feasible mod…
It’s tornado season, so the magnets will be perfect for attaching the lanterns to the inside of our storm shelter walls and ceiling. Should make them super easy to bang our heads into when trying to wrestle three big dogs down into a metal coffin.
@jedijson
Got to admire meh for the build-in minor head injury convenience.
@chienfou @jedijson They didn’t include enough sharp edges or incredibly fragile and brittle plastics to make them really deadly, though. The manufacturers will have to sharpen their game if they expect to get any recognition in this area.
@jedijson @werehatrack
ISWYDT!!
Oh, darn. Yesterday, I bought a set for $15 on Morningsave, which had 4 color selections . I’m “feelin’ it” Considering buying some for gifts. Storm season is coming.
Junk, had the same set, used twice camping and tossed. Batteries exhausted after first 30min use as the lanterns stay on sometimes when they should go off. Second time using them one did not work at all and the second would not turn off again…junk junk
@Dubhlaine
Were they this brand for sure? I have seen these marketed in multiple places under multiple brands with slight variances. The ones I own actually work very well. As for being rechargeable, I put rechargeable batteries in mine.
Here is a link to an old meh sale
Another testament to the willingness of certain Asian manufacturers to not just rip off an idea, but outright copy an entire design right down to reproducing the flaws in the one copied. Most of these would benefit from having the switch positioned where the lantern had to be opened just a bit more before it turned on, but they always copy that problematic feature, and sometimes they don’t get it right.
FWIW, if these are the same as the ones I got in an IRK late last year, the switches were accurately placed on those, but with near zero tolerance for eventual wear. Two of them are stuck to the metal case next to me at the moment, and the batteries are still lively. Those came in unbranded boxes, and weren’t this color, but otherwise look completely identical right down to the size and positioning of the magnets and markings on the bottom.
All of them need a latch or lock to keep the lantern closed in travel, unless you’re going to try to keep them in the flimsy boxes that they were shipped in.
Blue Lantern? Call me a traditionalist and make mine Green!
/giphy Green-lantern
@TheMonkeyKing
Like this?
@TheMonkeyKing @werehatrack In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!
/giphy green-lantern
AA batteries…
Pass!
@ohhwell Worse. AA and AAA.
Given the crummy batteries included in some of the market-priced (cheap) rechargeable devices I’ve had, I’m good with something having an open battery compartment that I can populate to suit myself. For that matter, ditto for a lot of recent laptops whose battery is buried inside the case, and fails in a way that can destroy the whole thing by expanding to two or three times its normal thickness. I could care less how waffer-theen it is, I want the damn thing to last longer than the original battery, and not pull a Mr. Creosote on me when it hits the ditch-by date.
@werehatrack A wafer theen meent
Needs a solar panel. Done filling these with batteries. The solar one is great for camping. Set it outside the tent during the day, and ready to go for night.
Rechargeable/solar only
60 lumen? You’ll need a flashlight to see if they’re on.
@wanderers The old AA Maglites were only about five lumens, so I think 60 lumens ought to be enough to be useful.
Mine says it was delivered but it was not! FeDEx SICKS out here. If Meh is only going to use FedEx for shipments then I am out!